Pioneer Lane

AllMusic Review
by Steve Leggett

Twin sisters Chandra Watson and Leigh Watson were born and raised in Kentucky, and the plaintive, Southern sibling folk harmonies they grew up singing went with them when they relocated to Los Angeles and immersed themselves in the California neo-folk scene, working as backup singers and occasionally as a duo under the name Black Swan. When they began writing their own material in earnest, they became what they'd always been, the Watson Twins. This set is the third full-length release under that name, and it's a low-key, smooth, and brightly reflective listen, full of redemptive, water-colored lullabies. The idea was to make a children's album that would also work for adults, and to a certain extent that happens here, although one has to keep in mind that these twins could sing dinner recipes and it would work, so sweet and affecting are those sibling harmonies. It's true that songs here like the opener, "Little Darling," and the infectious "Hello, Hello" have timeless, ageless melodies and drift like pastels, as soothing as a wink or a wish, but then every track here has some of that, and listening to all nine of these family-oriented tracks in a row makes one, well, sleepy. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. It's situational, and so is this gentle album.